Practicing New Worlds in a Time of Collapse
“Our survival is at stake,” says author and organizer Andrea Ritchie.
“We have to recognize our interdependence, and the necessity of acting from that place, in order to ensure the collective survival of the people that white supremacist, authoritarian imperial powers would consign to death in the way that they’re consigning the people of Gaza to death today,” says author and organizer Andrea Ritchie. In this week’s episode of “Movement Memos,” Andrea and I discuss organizing, solidarity with Palestine, and why activists cannot defer the work of practicing new worlds. This long-planned discussion of Andrea’s new book Practicing New Worlds: Abolition and Emergent Strategies was reshaped, in some ways, by our solidarity with the people of Palestine. I needed this conversation and I think some of you may need it too. You can find the episode wherever you get your podcasts, or you can find a transcript with audio and show notes here. The show notes for this episode also include some great education and organizing resources, so I hope you’ll check those out as well.
Update on our last episode:
Our last episode, Israel’s Tools of Occupation Are Tested on Palestine and Exported Globally, was one of our most listened-to episodes of the year. After the episode aired, I caught up with our guest Antony Loewenstein, whose segments were recorded before the events of October 7. I wanted to see if Antony had any further thoughts to share, in light of recent events. He told me:
Following the recent, shocking Hamas attack on Israel, the Western world has unified completely behind Israel. Netanyahu and his government now have carte blanche to unleash hell on the people of Gaza, the vast majority of whom are civilians. But there is no military solution to the Israel/Palestine conflict and levelling entire neighbourhoods of Gaza are little more than bloodlust and revenge. Too few are asking what happens when Hamas is overthrown in Gaza. Will Israel resume control or the corrupt and hated Palestinian Authority?
Although there's a risk for Israel that a prolonged military campaign in Gaza will decrease Western support, Israel's arms industry is likely safe because many states will want to support the country after the Hamas attack and still believe that the Jewish state makes some of the most effective repressive tech in the world (despite the clear intelligence failures when Hamas struck Israel on 7 October).
I also recommend checking out this conversation between Antony and Paris Marx.
As ever, thanks for listening (or reading) Movement Memos. We work hard to make each episode a resource for people who want to change the world, and I hope this season is landing that way for you.
Stay tuned for my weekly must-read roundup, which will hit your inbox tomorrow if you’re an Organizing My Thoughts subscriber. Until then, let’s rage against what’s wrong, cherish what’s right, and do our best to care for each other.
